Coaches Film: Breaking down the key plays from the Miami Dolphins’ win over the Seattle Seahawks

A breakdown of the key plays from the Dolphins-Seahawks game after watching the coaches film:

1. Charles Clay’s 29-yard touchdown catch: How’d it happen?

Clay caught a crucial touchdown pass with 5:13 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 21. As we see from watching the tape, the Dolphins did a great job of setting up this touchdown with two previous calls from earlier in the fourth quarter.

First, let’s go back to the previous drive. Trailing 14-7, the Dolphins had first-and-10 at the Seattle 18 with 10:12 left, and ran an end-around to Marlon Moore for nine yards. Notice that Clay stays in to block.

The Dolphins scored on that drive, the Seahawks returned the kickoff for a touchdown, and the Dolphins took over again on their own 20 with 7:54 left, down 21-14. On the first play of the series, Moore goes in motion as if he’s going to run an end-around, but instead it’s a handoff to Reggie Bush, who gets the edge and gets a 22-yard gain.

Five plays later, the Dolphins have second-and-2 on the Seahawks’ 29. Once again, Moore goes in motion as if he’s taking another end-around. Clay is the fullback:

Except this time, they fake the handoff to Moore, and Clay runs a wheel route, getting matched up 1-on-1 with Seahawks linebacker Leroy Hill:

And Clay straight-up burns Hill for the easy touchdown. Earl Thomas was also in deep coverage (more on that later), but he couldn’t get over in time:

2. Seahawks defense: How’d they play the Dolphins, and how did Miami adjust?

The Seahawks showed the same look for most of the game: Eight defenders in the box to stop the run, press coverage on the outside and Thomas as the really, really deep safety — at least 20 yards off the ball:

Is Thomas fielding a punt or what?

However, it left the Seahawks incredibly vulnerable in the middle part of the field. Here was a 23-yard pass to Davone Bess on the second-quarter touchdown drive:

And again on the very next play, an 18-yard pass to Clay:

And again to Bess on this sliding catch for 19 yards on the game-winning drive:

Of course, the Seahawks weren’t the only team to use this defense:

3. Russell Wilson is an incredible athlete.

I wasn’t a big believer in Wilson before this game, but consider me a convert after he completed 77.8 percent of his passes, threw for 224 yards and two touchdowns, compiled a 125.9 passer rating and made several big plays with his feet.

And he had a play early in the second quarter that was one of the most athletic plays you’ll ever see a quarterback make. It came on third-and-12 with 12:56 left in the second quarter in a scoreless game.

2. Scrambling away from the defense, Wilson unleashes a throw on the run, against his body, 40 yards down-field:

3. And delivers the ball with unbelievable accuracy to Sidney Rice, who drags both feet and gets a 26-yard reception:

Just an amazing, amazing throw by the rookie.

Wilson also proved to Tony McDaniel in the third quarter that you can’t try to tackle him up high, or he’ll just slip under you:

4. Koa Misi shows good instincts.

Misi has played a lot of different positions in the last five years or so — middle linebacker, weakside linebacker, defensive end and strongside 3-4 linebacker. He didn’t make a big impact in his first two NFL seasons, but now in his third year, he’s playing much more instinctively, as we see on this play early in the first quarter.

Misi’s man initially is the tight end, but the Seahawks send Golden Tate in motion to Misi’s side:

The Seahawks’ goal is to snap the ball as soon as Tate lines up behind the tight end in an effort to confuse Misi. They want Misi to stick with the tight end, leaving Tate wide open in the flat:

Misi has a half-second to process this and make a decision, and he smartly passes the tight end off to an inside defender and picks up Tate:

And most impressively, hog-ties Tate in the open field for no gain:

Misi had one of his best games of the season, finishing with six tackles, second-most on the team,

5. Ryan Tannehill’s interceptions: What was he thinking?

Tannehill played a great game overall and was darned impressive in the fourth quarter, leading the Dolphins to 17 points and their first comeback victory of the season. But he made two throws that help you remember he’s still just a rookie.

The first came with 8:12 left in the first quarter on their second possession. As Tannehill rolls to his right, he has Bess open in the middle of the field for a split second:

Except he waits too long to throw, and by the time he does, Bobby Wagner has back-pedaled into coverage:

And Wagner makes the easy interception:

The other throw came in the fourth quarter on the 7-yard line, the play that was nullified due to Thomas’ roughing the passer penalty.

Notice that as Tannehill rolls to his right, not only is every Dolphins receiver covered, but a swarm of defenders surround Tannehill’s target, Anthony Fasano

Then Tannehill floats a wobbly pass across his body into triple coverage. This interception for Wagner was easier than the first one:

The next step in Tannehill’s development: Learning that it’s OK to throw the ball away.

6. Throw of the Day: Tannehill hits Bess for 25 yards.

This came on the game-winning drive and put the Dolphins in scoring range on the Seahawks’ 36. Notice the perfect ball location, just out of the defender’s reach:

This is how that catch looked from a professional photographer (the incredible Allen Eyestone):

7. Paul Soliai is a beast.

We kind of already knew that, as Soliai has been a 345-pound immovable force in the middle of the Dolphins’ defense the past three seasons. But check out this display of pure strength in the first quarter. Jared Odrick got credit for the tackle, but this play is all Soliai.

Notice the ball lined up on the 40:

He pushes the guard back five whole yards, and swallows up Marshawn Lynch for a five-yard loss:

And to cap it off, he celebrates it with a flying 345-pound jump-kick:

8. TE Anthony McCoy’s touchdown: How did it happen?

McCoy was wide open for a touchdown in the second quarter to tie the score 7-7, and Sean Smith took a lot of flak from fans for getting burned in coverage, but it doesn’t appear to be his fault.

As we see, McCoy is lined up all the way at the top of the screen, and Smith is down at the bottom (unfortunately, neither angle from the coaches’ tape allowed us to figure out who is initially covering McCoy. Any help is appreciated):

The breakdown on this play appears to be because of confusion over whether they are in man or zone coverage. Smith sticks with his man, and McCoy is being covered by two defenders as he runs across the back of the end zone:

Then the play completely breaks down. The defender initially on McCoy breaks off and thinks he’s handing McCoy off to the safety. The safety stands in the middle of the field as if he’s playing zone. And Smith stays with his man:

Smith peels off his man when he sees McCoy streaking past him uncovered, but it’s too late:

And Smith is left to ask his teammates: What the heck are you guys doing?

9. Jake Long gives up a sack: How’d it happen?

First of all, notice at how Long cheats into his stance a split-second before the ball is snapped. He tends to do this a lot:

He seems to have Chris Clemons squared up:

But he’s not swift enough to handle the spin move, and Clemons gets an easy sack:

Long has been solid in run-blocking this year, but speedy pass rushers give him a lot of problems, possibly due to the accumulation of knee injuries over his five NFL seasons.

10. Reggie Bush’s 21-yard touchdown run: How’d it happen?

First of all, watching Mike Pouncey pull out into open space after snapping the ball is a thing of beauty. Bush also has Long lined up in front of him:

Notice that a defender makes contact with Bush at the 5-yard line:

But Bush makes an incredible individual effort to fight through two defenders and get to the pylon for the game’s first touchdown:

He’s not known as a physical running back, but Bush is one tough dude.

11. Davone Bess: How’d he get THAT wide open for 39 yards?

With the Dolphins trailing 14-7 early in the fourth quarter, this 39-yard catch by Bess put the Dolphins in scoring range and got the comeback rolling.

We see that the Dolphins run a simple three-man route, with Brian Hartline running a middle crossing pattern, Fasano running a middle out pattern and Bess running a deep middle drag:

All three receivers appear to be covered, but the deep safety focuses on Hartline instead of Bess:

[…] Coaches Film: Breaking down the key plays from the Miami Dolphins' win over … Clay caught a crucial touchdown pass with 5:13 remaining in the 4th quarter to tie the score at 21. As we see from watching the tape, the Dolphins did a great job of setting up this touchdown with 2 previous calls from earlier in the 4th … Read more on Palm Beach Post (blog) […]